Model texts Unit 3
Visiting another country can be a rewarding experience but can also lead to disappointment or frustration. In my view, learning something about the culture of a country they are going to visit will certainly make a tourist’s visit safer and more pleasurable.
At the most basic level, visitors should find out what activities or behaviour might be unsafe or against the law in the country they want to visit. This is particularly important for Western women who travel in countries where women dress more modestly than they do at home. Visitors risk unwanted attention from men if they do not dress appropriately for that culture. In addition, public displays of affection between husband and wife are illegal in some countries. Visitors who are unaware of this law could be arrested for holding hands with their spouse in the street.
Other habits or behaviour can seem disrespectful to inhabitants of the host country and give a bad impression of the visitor’s country. For example, leaving some food on your plate is seen as good manners in some countries, but, in others, will make a host think the visitor disliked the food. Waiting in queues at bus stops and in banks or shops is very important in Britain, and British people will think visitors who push ahead of them are rude and uncultured. What’s more, customs around greeting people vary a lot from country to country and visitors can cause offence if they get them wrong.
Yet another reason to study the culture of a country before going there is to help a visitor understand and get the best from their experience. A traveller in Egypt will gain far more pleasure from their visit if they know something about the culture, architecture and artefacts from different periods of that country’s rich history. Similarly, visitors to Greece or Turkey will enjoy seeing ancient temples and theatres much more if they understand what their purpose was.
To sum up, doing some homework to find out more about a country’s culture makes for a more pleasant visit for both visitors and hosts.
Unit 4
Having grown up with the internet, millennials are the most globally connected generation that has ever existed. As a result, urban millennials are likely to recognize the same fashion brands, pop stars and film actors whether they live in Beirut or Berlin. They may also share similar values where issues like social justice, personal identity and environmental problems are concerned. Whether they are located in Sudan or Sweden, the same cannot be said of rural millennials.
The first reason for this disparity is economic. People in rural areas are usually less wealthy than those who live in cities. Although internet access exists almost everywhere on Earth nowadays, people in agricultural areas often have to share electronic devices with family members or the whole community. This means that they spend less time online and often only use the internet for practical reasons, such as weather monitoring. In contrast, their urban peers are more likely to use the internet for online shopping or surfing entertainment sites.
Another reason why rural communities are less influenced by the internet is their lack of time. Agricultural work often involves working for as long as there is daylight, and this leaves little time for online browsing. Even when time and devices are available, people who live in rural areas are often too tired to go online when their day’s work is done.
Finally, big differences have always existed between rural communities and urban ones in the same country. The daily routine of a manager working in a large company in a city is not at all like that of a small farmer in the same country. Their personal goals and worries are also very dissimilar.
To conclude, in most countries, there are huge differences between life in the country or in a city. Where city-dwelling millennials are concerned, the internet has opened a window on the world, and this has brought people of different nationalities together. However, as explained above, the gap between urban and rural communities of the same age is bigger than it was before the Internet Age.
116 English for the 21st
Century • Model texts
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